I saw a muay thai match between 12 year olds the other day, with head striking.
I found it pretty shocking. however their technique, discipline and sportsmanship was outstanding, the fight was fucking amazing too.

I don't have a problem with kids mma. It's inevitable. So is the fact there will be many people only training "mma" that have no other backgrounds. I think in the long run though, the best fighters will still be the ones who excelled in a single discipline before branching out to mma.

a crucial point here's the difference between training and competing.
training I don't consider problematic at all, with qualified coaches, however for competing...
not so sure, at the very least a set of sensibly modified rules is essential.

It's funny I brought my step daughter with me to judo when she was six, just to watch. She wanted nothing to do with it. So we put her in TKD just to have her start something. She says "judo is for dirty boys".
After seeing many kids classes, watching Kayla Harrison win gold and seeing many other ladies (including her mom on one occasion) do Judo I asked her why she didn't want to do judo. She says she doesn't want to get hurt.
Now she's eight, in gymnastics, and that's ALL she wants to do. So I think her real reason is she really doesn't want to do combat sports, and I am just happy she's so into her chosen thing.
If she ever were to change her mind and do MMA, it would be judo all the way until she was proficient. We don't have any kids under 16 at my regular club but that's when you are allowed to apply joint locks. Sounds like the perfect time to start adding mma stuff.
I sure wouldn't pass judgement on anyone who would do it another way though, and I don't have a problem kids training MMA. Competition is tricky, I don't know how it would have to be done.

Its a little annoying how the article uses pankration and MMA synonymously.

My original statement:

Most people find it ironic that while I support children learning MMA, I do not recommend that children actually participate in MMA events. Let me qualify this by saying there are MMA like events that are much safer. As most experts will tell you, a child's brain has not fully formed until early teens. No child should ever be exposed to repeated shots to the head.

That being said children learning mma is no more dangerous than bike riding, gymnastics, wrestling, Taekwondo, football, or soccer. As a matter of fact there are fewer injuries to children in MMA like activities than the other aforementioned activities because of expectations.

The safer sport I mentioned earlier is called Pankration. There are no shots to the head but many of the techniques used in MMA are used in Pankration. So when we are talking about children in MMA we need to clarify what rules we are referring to.

Most parents have mixed feelings with MMA but most of this stems from their own projected feelings onto their children; from fear to aggression. Whether a person wants to believe in the extreme of nature versus nurture what we have found out that there needs to be an outlet available for children to develop. MMA allows a child to establish a sense of self that tends to be suppressed in modern society; with the establishment of harsher no contact rules in schools. These rules are believed to suppress a child's need to develop a sense of social intimacy.

My advice to most parents is quite simple. Make sure you make a decision done out of education not ignorance. Talk to other parents in the activity. Even as a coach I find myself squeamish watching the children go at each other so intently but the smiles, bonding and character development that comes out such an activity always wins me over

Perhaps more notably, Taekwondo allows little else besides kicks to the head. Punches to he body, kicks to the body, and kicks to the head.
Contrast this with MMA, wherein you have knees, leg kicks, and all that grapply stuff I keep hearing about on the news.

The fool thinks himself immortal,
If he hold back from battle;
But old age will grant him no truce,
Even if spears spare him.